The electrical grid connecting America's power plants, transmission lines and substations to homes, businesses and factories operate almost entirely within the realm of high voltage alternating current (AC). Yet, an increasing fraction of electrical devices found in those buildings actually operate on low voltage direct current (DC). Those devices include, but are not limited to, digital displays, remote controls, touch-sensitive controls, transmitters, receivers, timers, light emitting diodes (LEDs), audio amplifiers, microprocessors, other digital electronics, and virtually all products utilizing rechargeable or disposable batteries, such as smartphones, tablets, laptop computers, etc.
Installation of devices utilizing low DC voltage has been typically limited to locations in which a pair of wires is routed from a DC voltage source. Increased versatility in placement and powering of low DC voltage devices is desirable. Specifically, there is an increasing desire to have electrical functionality, such as DC power, in the interior building environment, and specifically in the ceiling environment, without the drawbacks of existing systems.
A conventional ceiling grid framework, such as one used in a surface covering system, includes main grid elements intersected by cross grid elements therebetween. The main and cross elements form a mutually orthogonal grid of polygonal openings into which devices or components, such as panels, light fixtures, speakers, motion detectors and the like can be inserted and supported. Known systems that provide electrification to devices, such as lighting components, in conventional framework systems utilize a means of routing discrete wires or cables, principally on an “as needed” point-to-point basis via conduits, cable trays and electrical junctions located in the space behind the ceiling grid framework. These known systems suffer from the drawback that the required network of wires occupy the limited space behind the ceiling grid framework and are difficult to service or reconfigure. Further, the electrical power levels that are typically available are not safe to work with for those not trained, licensed and/or certified.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,997,910 to provide an electrified ceiling grid framework system connected to a low DC voltage source. Each grid element in the system supports along its length a pair of electrical conductors or busses having opposing polarity and disposed on opposing surfaces of each grid element. An electrical grid connector or power tap is mounted on one or more of the grid elements and is electrically connected to the pair of conductors. A pair of wires extends from the grid connector to a remote electrical device for supplying low DC voltage directly to the device.
As advantageous as the known electrified ceiling grid framework systems have been, the techniques currently used are somewhat constrained in that the direct connection from the wires to the remote electrical device dictated the length of the wires. The wire length was thus customized for each device. If it was desired to connect to another device at a different location, then the wire length had to be changed. If a longer length was needed, then another set of wires had to be provided and hard-wired into the grid connector. In addition, the wires in the known systems were not reasonably accessible from all directions relative to the framework plane.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to enable the connection between the wires and the remote device to be more versatile, and to be more accessible.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The assembly components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.